Please, not all androids have it. Also, it says that some Nokia and Blackberry smartphones also have it. I don't care about people's philosophies of which phone OS they want but making sweeping statements like this is throwing the baby with the bathwater. Carrier IQ was put in there by the company, not by Google.

Android's open source-ness just makes it a victim of its own success.

For all we know, it's also on the iPhone (unconfirmed) but it is known that Carrier IQ is found on non-Google-experience phones. This implies that either the carriers or the manufacturers (who modified the OS) put it there for their own nefarious purposes.

It being found on Android just means you can tell if it's on Android and you can take steps to have a CIQ-free phone (re: install an open-sourced OS). As it seems that manufacturers seem to have sanctioned installation of this rootkit, it could also be on other OS. These other OSs, being closed source would then mean that there's no way to tell if its there or not.

If anything, this is just like the rootkit fiasco with Sony a few years back.

If there would be any arguments against any type of phone, I'd rather see a more thought-of criticism than this. It's no better than the post advising buying a phone based on resale value alone.

The OP has every right to make their own decision based on the information provided. The questions was, should I get a Samsung Galaxy s2 (Android phone) or an iPhone.

I was just putting my two cents worth with a recent topical news story, as I am entitled to do (yes or no?)

You are right though, not all Android phones have it, not all Nokia and Blackberries have it and I'm sure iPhones have things that others don't like that we don't know about.

But posting my opinion (read "I'd avoid Android") with a link to a story relvant to the topic and a statement with a smiley is hardly offensive and due to the relevance is surely not considered totally useless.

Would you prefer it I simply tell the OP to Google it for themselves? Is that more thought out? Is that more informative?

nutnut wrote:The OP has every right to make their own decision based on the information provided. The questions was, should I get a Samsung Galaxy s2 (Android phone) or an iPhone.

I was just putting my two cents worth with a recent topical news story, as I am entitled to do (yes or no?)

You are right though, not all Android phones have it, not all Nokia and Blackberries have it and I'm sure iPhones have things that others don't like that we don't know about.

But posting my opinion (read "I'd avoid Android") with a link to a story relvant to the topic and a statement with a smiley is hardly offensive and due to the relevance is surely not considered totally useless.

Would you prefer it I simply tell the OP to Google it for themselves? Is that more thought out? Is that more informative?

Issit that you just don't like the iPhone?

Whether I like iPhone or not is immaterial. Your post wasn't offensive.

However, it bugs me that people are just willing to accept things at face value, without giving it much thought. You had every right to express your opinion but then so do I, except that I gave it a few more paragraphs.

My rant wasn't directed at you specifically but as I've been following tech (indirectly because of my job), I'm just annoyed that people would take religious positions of their platform of choice for the shallowest of reasons, especially with the recent litigious streak in smartphone software patents. It's the whole Mac-vs-PC flame wars all over again but now it's iOS-vs-Android-vs-WP7-vs-everybody else.

I apologize if you felt like under attack but I just REALLY BUGS me that people aren't giving things much thought. Let's just accept it: phones now are more complex than they used to be. I wouldn't care which side of the silicon pulpit you're on as long as you're presenting a well thought-of argument.

Frankly, I've spent most of my entire life following tech, since I was 6 and playing with my vic20 I've been hooked and I too am in IT.

I do prefer my iphone, but have my own reasons for this, one of which is that I have integrated it into my life and my wife and kids have them too, so to move away from them is difficult. I've never had a different platform of smart phone since the 3G has been out. But I regularly read up about them and I'm always the first to have a look at new tech as people arrive in the office with it if i don't buy it myself.

And back in my day, there was the Atari - Commodore fight (ST/Amiga) amongst many others. It's what makes it interesting and helps the companies stay afloat, if everyone liked just one platform then we wouldn't need to have multiple, just look at the console market, Sony vs Microsoft vs Nintendo! Everyone knows the Xbox 360 is much better than the rest!

(I am by no means affiliated with the XBOX, nor am I allowed one anymore by my wife.)